Burmese Officials Deny Dissident Was Injured

By SETH MYDANS

Published: June 4, 2003

NEW DELHI, June 3—
Facing strong condemnation from around the world, officials in Myanmar denied today that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had been injured when she was detained over the weekend in a crackdown on her pro-democracy movement.

Briefing diplomats in the capital, Yangon, the deputy foreign minister, Khin Maung Win, said Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi was unharmed but he refused to say where she or a number of her prominent supporters were being held, according to wire service reports.

In a statement issued by the White House, President Bush said he was ''deeply concerned'' over the arrests in the former Burma, and the padlocking of the office of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy.

''The military authorities should release Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters immediately and permit her party headquarters to reopen,'' Mr. Bush said. ''We have urged Burmese officials to release all political prisoners and to offer their people a better way of life, a life offering freedom and economic progress.''

The United Nations, the European Union and a number of nations in Asia and Europe joined in the calls for her release as the military junta that took power in 1988 proceeded with what appeared to be the harshest moves against the democratic opposition in many years.

The sudden crackdown came one year after Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi was released from 19 months of house arrest with assurances that the government would begin a dialogue with her and would free political prisoners. Those promises have gone largely unfulfilled.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi had met with increasing harassment as she traveled the country to meet supporters. She was seized in northern Myanmar after a violent clash that the government said left 4 people dead and 50 injured.

Burmese exile groups said they had information that her convoy had been attacked by the military and that scores of people may have been killed. There were unconfirmed reports that Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi had suffered a head wound.

''This repressive behavior confirms the regime's lack of interest in the return to democracy,'' said Javier Solana, the foreign policy chief of the European Union.

Photo: Opponents of Burma's government demonstrated in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. One held a picture of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. (Agence France-Presse)